Can you, uh, can you speak to the, the one move you did make and what, what you believe Nick brings, uh, brings here? Yeah, I mean, Nick’s a veteran. He’s a physical presence. He’s someone who has great character, does things the right way, makes the team harder to play against, and generally just sort of adds the kind of character and toughness that we wanted to bring to the group. Was reported as a conditional 7th round pick. What are the conditions on that? Um, uh, it depends on how far we go in the playoffs and how much he plays. Will that just be the pick will be sent if they play them in games, or sorry. Just to make sure nothing in the queue, uh, yet there, there’s nothing else that’s correct. OK, just wanna make sure, um. With a move like that, is there some hope or expectation that a guy like that gets regular season games down the stretch to get acclimated? I realize that’s a maybe a Rod call, but nonetheless, you bring a new guy in, his acclimation would take place in these last handful of games, maybe. Yeah, I mean, it’ll be up to Rod to figure out what’s best to help integrate him. Um, you know, there’s always a balance between wanting people to have a chance to fit in and get up to speed and wanting to get the ice time and. I will let Rod, you know, manage that. He’s very good at handling his roster. Yeah, Eric, the last couple of years you took some pretty big swings and brought in Ginzel and then Miko, just, did you try to do that this year but just not able to work it out, not to ask for any names or anything, but did you try to do that? No, I, I mean, I think like I can tell from the question, you know, how we operate, right? We’ve, we’ve said we’re not going to stop until we have the 20 best players all on one team. And of course every opportunity we get to try and make the team better, we’re going after it as hard as we can. You know, we, especially when there are high-end players, we want to take those swings and so we spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks running down leads trying to find opportunities to bring in those high-end players. Um, sometimes the deal just isn’t there, right? We’ve, we’ve shown, you know, in the Colorado deal, we showed we’re willing to take risks to do it. In the Dallas deal, we showed we’re willing to pivot when circumstances aren’t what we expected them to be. Um, in the deal with the Rangers in the summer, we showed we’re willing to put a bunch of futures into a deal to get the player we want. Um, at this deadline, what we showed is sometimes the deal we want isn’t there and we’re gonna have the discipline to not do it, you know, the, the things we were looking at, the price we were getting offered, we felt like would have been a step back both in the near term and going forwards, and it just doesn’t make sense then, right? And so, you know, of course, that’s our goal. We, you know. There’s opportunities to make the team better around the draft on free agent day and at the trade deadline. We were fortunate that in the summer, we were able to add Ke’Andre, add Nick, really make the team better in those areas. Um, the opportunity wasn’t there to take that same size swing at the trade deadline. And so we added a piece that will help round out our group a little bit and move forward with what we have. Eric, did you, with every trade that, that, uh, trade market being a little different, I guess, year to year, I mean, did, did it feel, were the prices higher in general this year? Was it, was it dramatically different than maybe previous years when you’ve gone through this process? Yeah, it was kind of a strange deadline because there were a lot of. Teams that were sort of on the bubble leading up to it and not sure which way they were going to go. And so there were weeks where it felt like there was nothing available and then in the last couple of days, a bunch of teams decided to put guys on the market. And so it went from a really tight market to a flooded market very quickly and, um, teams that were not sure whether they were going to buy decided to buy. Teams that were not sure whether they were going to sell, decided to sell. And so a lot of stuff didn’t really get serious until the last couple of days, um, you know, in the end, a lot of the players that got moved were guys who, um, were sort of. In the. Uh, sort of range of the roster where we feel like we’re pretty deep and solid and it wasn’t the high-end guys that we’re really after when we try to make the team better. Eric, does the, the one move that you guys made, I mean, does it just kind of show that you have complete faith in the roster that you have put together? Yeah, I mean, of course, we have a lot of faith in this roster. We’ve battled through a ton of injuries and are on pace for, I don’t know, 112 points or something. Um, it’s, and, you know, getting better as we get healthier. So, very happy with what we have right now. I would say we’re always looking to get better, you know, we’d, we’d rather be on pace for 130 points or 150, so it’s, you know, it’s not like I’m ever gonna say this team’s good enough, we don’t need to add. We’re always trying to add. Um, it’s just, uh, we didn’t, we didn’t find deals that made sense for us at this point. So much noise around, you know, what you’re going to look for, what you’re gonna want is people saying you need a second line center. I just wanted, wonder if you could speak to how you feel Logan has done in that role and, you know, given how he’s done, did that change anything as far as what you looked for, uh, or, or those deals you talked about maybe not overspending for stuff that you didn’t think improved that role? Yeah, I think Logan’s been great in that role. I, I, um. I know there’s a lot of people out there who look at the point totals and you know fret about it. Truthfully, at 5 on 5, he has produced, you know, at a high rate. Um, we have 3 of the top 40 centers in the league in 5 on 5 production, and the fact that he’s not on our first power play unit has nothing to do with how good he is as a center, um. I think there have been a lot of nights this year. Like I know they got hot this week and people got excited about that. I think people have forgotten how many nights in October and November that line was our best line. Like that line has created a lot of offense this year and he’s been part of that. Uh, you know, he’s not the tallest guy and people worry about that, but he plays really hard. He’s extremely competitive and he’s the kind of person who drags teammates into the fight, you know, other people look at it and say, well, if he can do that, then obviously I can. I’m twice his size, so. Um, and I think it really brings something to us to have him playing the way he does, um, and you know, truthfully, like, like I said, that line’s been great for us, and I, you know, I have no concerns about it going forward at all. Doesn’t mean we’re not always looking to get better, of course we are, but you know, completely comfortable with him in that role. With the play of Joel Nystrom and Charles Lexi Lego kind of put to bed, any thoughts of maybe adding more depth defensively? So I would say, you know, last year that was one of the things we ran into when we got into the playoffs was we had a couple of injuries on D and we had guys going into the lineup who had barely played, and it was a challenge, um, and you know, you never want to go through the kind of injuries we had this year. I would much rather have not had that happen. But being 9 or 10 deep through October and November meant we got a lot of time to see guys and see them play and like I said, we did, we came out of that in 1st place, right? So it’s, you know, there is a comfort level this year with the players that we have stepping in both on D and for upfront, you know, when we have injuries, we’ve got guys who we know can play. Um, we’ve actually, we’ve got guys in the AHL we’re gonna be looking for opportunities to get them into the lineup and so. A lot of the moves that happened out there today were teams trying to add the depth that we feel like we already have. And, you know, it’s, it’s great to have guys who we’re trying to find ice time for instead of guys we’re trying to replace. Eric, was there any look at trying to improve the goaltending situation? Yeah, I mean, we’re always looking to improve everywhere. Um, I, you know, we, again, I, I, unless I miss something, I don’t think any goalies got moved today. Certainly nobody who would be considered, you know, sort of a high-end oneA starter. Um, it’s, it’s a tough position to fill at the deadline because teams that are getting good goaltending are in the playoffs and. Teams that aren’t, you know, have a guy who may not be what you’re looking for, um, the goalies we have have, you know, we’ve. Uh, Brandon’s been great for us this year. Uh, Freddie, I know, has taken a little bit of grief. I think he’s been a lot better than his numbers reflect. I think he’s been playing well recently and we’re comfortable with the two of them. And then Pyotr is working his way back from injury and you know we’ll see his timeline. He may be in the mix by the time we get to the playoffs. We hear a lot about, you know, showing the team that you believe in them by making moves at the deadline. I’m wondering from your seat what you think about that. Do you think it’s a, oh, if we do something it gives our guys a boost, or is it a, if we don’t do something, it’s hey guys, you know, you’re our guys and we believe in you. Yeah, I mean, both are true. I, you know, I know players are excited to see reinforcements come in and I, you know, I wanna do that for them just as much as they wanna see it. We all want like nobody is more competitive than us and, you know, we’re. Up and down the organization we’re extremely aggressive in trying to add, um, ultimately, you know, it’s not about my faith in them, it’s about the opportunities there were in the market to actually make additions that would make us better and. I would love to bring someone in that, you know, is one of those top 20 players and makes everyone say we’re one guy closer to getting those top 20 all in one team. It just wasn’t there to be done this year. Hey Eric, um, just had a quick question about the guys who are, are, are on the roster. If, uh, other teams were aggressive in trying to get snag guys from the roster because there are depth, there is depth at a lot of different places. Yeah, I mean, we had a couple of calls on some guys, um, in the end, you know, we are trying to win a cup here and it would have been hard to move players out whether they’re, you know, regardless of what role they play. We expect to need everybody on this team at some point down the stretch. And so we did have some calls, we explored some things, but in the end, you know, we’re trying to win a cup and we didn’t want to thin our team out heading into the playoffs. Eric, not to put you at odds with Rod, but it just so happens a couple of days ago, somebody did mention Kochetkov, and he said, no, nothing has changed. He will not be ready. You kind of just moments ago mentioned he could be. Do you, just to clarify for us, is that a possibility, especially depending how far the team would go in the playoffs? Yeah, I mean, it, it’s. I’m not a doctor and don’t really know. My understanding at the time of the surgery was if things went well, he might be back in the mix. um, and it’s still very early. I don’t think we really know the timeline yet. I, you know, I think there is certainly a chance that if the team goes deep, he’s back in it by the end for us, maybe even earlier than that, but it really depends how things go. To follow up my question about the room and how they react, the guy you did get, is that the kind of player that maybe gives your guys a little more of a boost as far as, you know, knowing there’s a guy there to we know DesLaurier is one of the best fighters in the league to stand up for them if, if need be. Yeah, I mean, ultimately a lot of toughness is personal and internal, right? Am I gonna take it or not is what toughness is all about to me. It’s not really, do I have someone else to go take care of it for me. Um, and I think we have a group of guys that has that internal toughness, that fight, you know, again, Stan Coven’s the smallest guy in the world, and he’s grabbed guys and started fights when he thought it needed to happen, right? So it’s like we do have that fire, but of course it’s easier to have that toughness when you’ve got a guy like DesLaurier out there with you, um, and so. Providing that for when it feels like games are getting more intense and, you know, that might be useful to people is something we wanted to look for. Eric, from a general manager standpoint, how hard is it when you, when everybody wants like the Nikeians, the Blakes and the, and, and, and the Nados for you to look to the future and hold, you know, hold on to those as those prospects? How, how tough is it when someone maybe offers you a chance to, to, you know, to take those guys and get a piece that would help right now? Yeah, I mean, we’re not afraid at all to trade futures for things that make us better right now. We have a really good team and the goal is to win cups and if, you know, like I said, the, the deal that brought in Ke’Andre moved out a lot of future value for a guy who we think helps us right now and puts us in position to win a cup right now. And if there were other deals like that out there to be had, we would have done them, um, it deals where, uh, we felt like it, you know. The players that we really wanted, who we felt like would have really improved our odds this year, would have cost us pieces that we felt like would be a step back in the near term and future, and then it’s, you know, what’s the point? So having some discipline to be able to walk away from those moves and not feel like you have to do something is part of being able to run a team. doing good?
